Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Cozy up on the Mosel

This
past weekend, we decided to make our first trip of the year, my husband and I,
and our dog, Shakespeare. We looked up places where we could drive to and
decided to head on over to the Mosel Valley. The Mosel Valley runs through
Northern France, Southern Germany, and Eastern Luxembourg and its center is the
Mosel River. There’s much history along the Mosel River. Dating back to around
the 1300s, many of battles were fought between the Roman Empire and France, to
name a few. Now, it’s a valley filled with prosperous vineyards.

Within
a 2-1/2 hour car ride, we made it to our first destination, Cochem. Cochem is mentioned
as early as 886—developed during the Celtic and Roman times. Many parts of the town
were destroyed during WWII. Unfortunately, it happened to be a dreary weekend,
so the pictures don’t truly express the beauty of the town and ruins.

This
is artwork we found near the marketplace. I couldn’t find any information on
it, but if you zoom into it, you can see different dates and names. My guess is
it somehow signifies the history of Cochem.

Here
is the Enderttor. It’s one of the lasting city gates of Cochem—built in 1332.

We
walked up to Cochem castle, so here are a few pictures we took along the way.

In
my opinion, Cochem castle looks impressive from afar. Once we got up there, I
wasn’t in awe of its structure. Here are a few from far away and up close.

The
view from the castle was nicer. As you can see, there are many vineyards setup along the castle. What’s also interesting is there are two schools within the vicinity of the castle. How interesting would that be to look out
your school window and see this castle on the hill?

By
the time we came back down from the castle, we decided to drive to another one.
I read a suggestion by Rick Steves to visit the Burg Eltz. It took us a bit to
find it, due to its remote location, but this castle was worth getting a bit
lost. It’s one of the few castles that has not been destroyed, and is still
owned by the same families—33 generations later.

The
next day, we left Cochem and drove to Trier. These are a few pictures we took
along the way.

Trier
is presumed to be one of the oldest cities in Germany, founded in 16 BC, and
previously occupied by the Roman Empire. Below is the Porta Nigra (black gate)—the
largest Roman city gate north of the Alps. The name came from the darkened
color of grey sandstone between 186 and 200 AD. This was the main reason I came
to Trier. I wanted to see the Porta Nigra. Unfortunately, it was the
off-season, so we couldn’t see any performances done inside the it.

Although
this town was suggested by many, I can’t say it was a favorite of mine. Many of
the sites had costs, so my husband and I took a pass on several. We’ve learned
over our traveling years that not all things of cost are worth it. Plus, we had
Shakespeare with us, and he wasn’t allowed in many of the places. Below is a
plaque of Karl Marx and his birthplace.

We
walked around Trier and found the Emperors Bath. They were charging 3 Euros to
get in, and blocked some of it with brick columns. We could see much of it, so
we passed on going in and took pictures from the outside.

Wow times 10! Your pics make want it to be mid-September sooner than later. We watched the Rick Steves clip about Burg Eltz and hope we can fit it into our itinerary. Does one became jaded after seeing so many castles? That's how visiting Arches National Park is. After while they all start to blend together ;)